Enrich Your Farming with These 6 Farming and Agriculture Apps

2/16/2016

Farming technology has come a long way since the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Farm machinery has improved in leaps and bounds over the last century, but agriculture apps are where the really exciting advances are being made.

No matter what kind of operation you have, there are agriculture apps that will help simplify your life. Farming and ranching will always be hard work, but with the right tools things can be a bit more efficient. Try these six agriculture apps to help simplify your operation.

Dairy Farmer Apps

You don’t want to have to dig for basic information, so the Daily Dairy Report aggregates essentials like price reports, futures markets, the latest statistics and daily news into one central hub. The Daily Dairy Report seeks to connect the dots in the dairy industry, providing analysis by experienced dairy farmers of government prices, production and supply reports.

It gets good reviews among dairy farmer apps, with users calling it “Awesome!” and “A Virtual One Stop Shop.” Instead of visiting a half dozen bookmarks every day, the Daily Dairy Report has you covered. The app is always available for both Apple and Android devices.

Penn State developed DairyCents, a dairy farmer app that calculates income over feed costs and offers price comparisons on various grains and commodities based on the Penn State Feed Price List and what other users of the app are paying. DairyCents is simple to use, displaying an easy to understand breakdown of feed cost per cow, gross milk price, milk margin and more, along with historic data. DairyCents also makes it easy to graph your own data or compare your data to that of other users. DairyCents is available on Apple and on Android.

Cattle Apps

Get info on the nutritional requirements of your stock and more with Grazing Calculator, a cattle app developed by sibling dairy farmers Robert and Louise Hathaway. Grazing Calculator lets you work out the approximate area of crop to allocate for your herd and the number of days to leave cattle in a paddock based on yield. You can send results from the app in an email, as an SMS or copy it to the clipboard. Grazing Cattle lets cattle farmers play with the numbers of their farm and herd to maximize results. Grazing Calculator can be used on Apple or Android devices.

Beef Cow BCS lets you track and organize body condition scores for your herd. You can track cattle based on individual pastures and snap your own photos to see how they measure up to reference images in the app or keep records based on ear tag number.

Beef Cow BCS has stellar reviews in the iTunes store, with users calling it “yet another great innovation for the beef industry.” It’s also available for both Apple and Android.

Tractor GPS Apps

Keep track of your position in the field with Farm Sprayer GPS. This simple app helps you be sure of where you’ve sprayed or spread fertilizer, but you can also use it for tracking planting and tillage. Farm Sprayer GPS also keeps count of how many acres you’ve been over and apprises you of your tractor’s speed. Farm Sprayer GPS can also be purchased for Apple or Android.

Seed Management Apps

AG PhD’s Planting Population Calculator app helps determine the optimum in-row spacing between both soybean and corn seeds, based on the width of your rows and the planting population you want per acre. The seed management app is a good way to get a handle on the seeds per acre you’ll need for your farm. After crops have emerged, Planting Population Calculator helps determine a stand count for your crops, allowing you to compare what you planted to your actual yield. It can be used by Apple devices and is being developed for Android devices.

Agent must be a registered representative of FBL Marketing Services, LLC to discuss mutual funds or college funding options.

Health insurance policies vary by carrier & individual and may not be offered through all agents or available in all states. Health insurance is underwritten by a variety of insurance companies not affiliated with our companies.

Long-Term Care and Disability Income insurance policies are underwritten by a variety of insurance companies that are not affiliated with our companies.

IMPORTANT: The information and material contained on this Web site is not an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security or any insurance product in any jurisdiction. No security or other insurance product is offered or will be sold in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities, insurance or other laws of such jurisdiction. Not all products are available in all states. Exclusions, limitations and reductions may apply. This Web site briefly highlights Farm Bureau's insurance policies and their benefits. The contract is contained only in the policy. Farm Bureau products are offered by Farm Bureau agents. For more information about any Farm Bureau product, please contact me.